HI-END AUDIO, A Fresh Approach!
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- čas přidán 17. 01. 2024
- Devon Turnbull's OJAS Listening Room is a VERY different kind of high-end store, located in the USM Modular Furniture Store in NYC. The Audiophiliac takes the tour.
The showroom is open Monday through Friday by appointment; no appointment required on Saturdays, 28 Greene St, NYC us.usm.com/blogs/journal-home...
Thanks for watching, this channel can be supported through Patreon: / audiophiliac
Twitter: @AudiophiliacMan
Instagram: / steve.guttenberg
#hifi #ojas #USMmodularfurniture - Věda a technologie
Great tour Steve. Love how Devon does his own thing. What the haters don’t get is that he’s positioning the hobby as part of a bigger cultural and community aesthetic.
lol lol
Hell yeah!
There are haters? This is fun. Normal run of the mill hi fi shop? They’re fine but this is like an amusement park.
The JBL 2405 super tweeter is 105dB SPL and it's a Disco type speaker but the Radio Shack Realistic 40-1377 Dual Radial Horn Tweeter Speaker is only 92dB SPL and a Japanese parallel to the 2405, ideally suited to mass market people with Japanese toned amplifiers.
Is that not apparent? I feel like people ‘get it’
Thank you so much Steve! It's always such a fun time! Looking forward to my other ramble about the Japanese audio scene coming soon.
Some may call it or dismiss it as being "hipster" but i absolute love what Devon is doing.
Big, efficient speakers, horns and tubes is nothing new. But there's a whole new generation of speaker builders and enthusiasts being made from
his exposure of this nerdy area of audio equipment and music.
I do want to recoil at the hipster element to this, but his setups look awesome and I'm jealous of the stuff he's building 😊
Steve, this was fun, so thanks to Devon.
His discussion at the end about his workshops reminded me how that is typically missing in the US. Back in the '70s we had a hi-end store in San Diego, Audio Directions. They had a secondary business, Audio Dimensions, which offered modifications, kits, and parts. They included workshops on Saturdays to assemble their modifications or kits under supervision. That eliminated any fears for messing it up. But that seemed to be near the end of interest in kits in the US so very little has been available since then.
I’m so Happy that you’re doing all these features/interviews with Devon.
I’ve personally been into audio since my early teens, but for the past few years Devon has really revitalized my passion for Hi-Fi.
I’ve been really inspired by his by his DIY ingenuity and his sense of aesthetics.
And the co-signs he’s received by respected long time-figures in the industry just shows that his ideas really work,
(for someone who can’t listen in person).
And by sharing his knowledge, and providing his know-how,
he’s making a great listening experience achievable by an ordinary guy like me,
And *that* has really invigorated my interest again.
And I’ve just been soaking up the wealth of information that he’s shared through your videos, and his instagram.
So I want to thank you both Steve and Devon, for taking the time, and being so generous with your experience and knowledge.
Cheers from Denmark :).
Denmark yeah Denmark you know? Well there's an American song that y'all can check out. It's called "I've Been Working On The Railroad" and it's sung to the tune of "The Eyes Of Texas" ... which back in the age of tubes was a popular Swing melody (and Harvard University does a Swing video on You Tube just to explain the genre).
"I’ve been working on the railroad,
All the live-long day.
I’ve been working on the railroad,
Just to pass the time away.
Do you hear the whistle blowing?
Rise up so early in the morn!
Do you hear the captain calling,
“Dinah blow your horn”? "
Well we got Devon blowing his horn instead ... actually his replica Western Electric 12027 and this song is the anthem of the University of Texas at Austin, students there you know called undergraduate Longhorns. How about that? Horn speakers too are certainly popular in Texas but Radio Shack you know, isn't much liked on Steve's channel, and was based in Fort Worth back in the day.
Thank you ! Please come for a visit if you're even in NYC.
@@devonojas I’d love to!
And thank you for taking the time to read my comment :)
Man that turntable is crazy. This guy is single-handedly bringing back good design into hi-fi AND bringing in more new young people into the culture than anybody else through beautiful looking gear. (That's only bad news if you are looking for some cheap altec drivers like me but whatever)
Devon’s focus on community and knowledge of hifi history is inspiring. We’re honored to collaborate with him and proud of the results!
I applaud them on being different from most high end audio stores! To shop at most high end audio stores you have to be rich, but in this store, you have to be hip as well as rich! Well done!
I hope this is sarcasm
Elon is just Leon spelled sideways
Love Devon's Passion and I love that you let everyone just ramble on Steve, you are a great interviewer!! 😍
Thanks!
Man, this is such an non-compromise, dear I say exotic collection. The guy is so creative and lives his passion the big way. I'm jealous
So interesting, wondered what Devon was all about and now I know. Dave Slagle was mentioned! Wow. Amazing to think of step-up transformers in mu-cans on an octal base, very innovative.
Devon's enthusiasm, humility, and accessibility is refreshing. He is a conduit for many people into the beautiful world of sound reproduction and the art of listening.
Fascinating interview! Thanks Steve. Very, very impressive. What a breath of fresh air. I couldn't afford a thing he sells but I admire his brain and his sense of purpose.
Glad uou like the direction. We sell quite a lot of parts that I feel are special for MSRP. But we also offer a lot of ideas that you can pursue outside of buying anything from us.
I really appreciate seeing Devon and admire what he is doing. That's passion and that's great to see. Thanks, Steve and don't stop.
We are so use to mass production and that style, we need more of this AMERICAN passion. Fisher ...Marantz...McIntosh....ect ect. When they started I'm sure started like this....Ojays needs to be in every big city in America and I'm sure there are lots of young hipsters out there that need to be influenced by this video. I love it!
Appreciated.
13:11 Those have to be the largest vacuum tubes I've ever seen! They are huge.
Excellent video, I was lucky enough to hear the system at the Lisson gallery in London Summer 2023.
I wonder how on earth Devon can afford the rent there. Beautiful store.. I wish him the best in his business and that he can move enough gear in order to keep up with expenses.
Great video, great tour. Thanks for sharing.
I wish him the best also. I know it's got to be tough to stay in business in a competitive place like NYC and make a profitable living!
Sell product? Lol.
@@jonathandavis9507
Sell overpriced product to rich hipsters
It's the arts, ... that's how.
Accommodations are often made.
It's a win win, beautiful shop.
They aren't giving away trips to Japan either. Devon is obviously doing alright for himself and that's terrific I'm delighted for him. His speaker projects really took me back to my early "audiophile" days when HiFi was a budding extension of sound systems used in theaters, auditoriums, and concert halls. Altec, Western Electric, and JB Lansing were the founders of the speaker industry while Saul Marantz, Avery Fisher, and HH Scott pioneered the electronics side of HiFi. An old trout I may be, but to me there's nothing like the dynamic presence of a large efficient speaker like the Altec A7 Voice of The Theater (or similar).
That is an interesting video and so much more relax and fun. It was new to me that Japan embrace DIY as high-end, inspiring for a DIY-er as myself.
This was awesome. I totally resonate with that guy’s design vibe!
Nice shop by the way ;) Look forward to part 2.
Wicked beautiful!!! Have been waiting for years for more on this artist! Thank you!
As a DIYer of 50+ years, I hope Devon is a good business man. While I dislike modern audio jewelery, I'm unsure well heeled consumers are ready for his DIY esthetic. My biggest gripe is we've moved on from 'sounding board' turntables. Skeletal designs with well analyzed resonance control are the way forward. He should demo a Rega Planar 10 or Niai in his shop for comparison purposes. I hope you interview him again in a couple of years to gauge consumer acceptance!
Talk here?
Very very creative there Devon,
Continue to do us all a great service in bringing new music lovers into the fold.
Thanks Steve…THAT is about as SOHO as it gets! ❤👍🏼❤
I would love to hear some of Devon's gear. He is one cool character!
Devon and Steve, thank you for this. As a diy-er in this arena, I find this so inspiring. Looking forward to making a visit sometime!
Devon is just a brilliant visionary, and a wonderful , talented man. Audio needs more Archangels like him, truly!
Thank you, Steve👍🙏
I’d spent 2 hours there a few months ago. Chance was gracious and a great DJ host.
Have never been to NYC. Now I want to go, and…..”
I love my custom made Steve Berger phono preamps.
So cool and interesting! He really likes analog , wow. So difficult but worth it on the sound.
So much beauty! So nice to see that behind all the technical stuff it‘s the people that matters! Keep going…,
Best of luck Devon, an artist.
Watching videos like this makes me wish I lived in New York City!😄
Great stuff! That new Ortofon arm looks kind of plain, but it's beautifully built and really sounds great - I have only tried it so far with an SPU#1S, but that was genuinely wonderful.
Some innovative ideas here. I’d love to hear it.
What a place! Would love to visit sometime in the future (living in Denmark). Thanks Steve for this video!
Thank you! Hope to see you here!
Steve, you did it again. Great video, you are awesome.
Great Video - Looking forward to Part 2!
Thanks for that interview. I have some tube gear and some nice Mullard nos tubes, but need more power! Those 12 inch woofer speakers look interesting.
As a speaker rehabber and builder, this is pretty inspiring. A bunch of ideas.
The wooden plinth turntable using Technics 1200 G motors ... you know begs a mention of that other ... grey plinth rehabber's TT, the Logic DM-101 originally with its Datum-11, and later other ... you know ... Ortofon suited TT arms. Because even though middle America just loves Ortofon, they're a halfway house compared to Koetsu ... and Logic DM 101 were priced to compete with the Scottish Linn Sondek TT that it shares its suspension system with. Well Devon's TT has no suspension and it's wooden but Steve doesn't give negative reviews.
I was so interested in what Devon was saying that it took 10 full minutes to notice his cool sweater.
Great tour and interview. The only time I’ve listened to this time of speaker is at Pete Riggles system with custom VOT speakers while he finalized a VTAF for a tonearm.
Great show Steve! Devon’s spaces always remind me of working art studios or workshops from the 80s when I was in art school. Very inspirational. I noticed something on the floor after the pre amp, it was a silver component, pretty sure it was a Topping D90 maybe SE DAC. For me it stood out when he seemed to ignore it. It’s funny to see some mass market/amazon chi-fi product in the middle of all that bespoke and amazing components. I wish he had commented on it.
That was a wonderful tour, thank you both. I'm already looking forward to part 2. Besides all the great studio and audio equipment, I also saw Hibiki and Toki for a brief moment. But maybe that will come into play during your interview🙂
Joking aside, I really like the concept of your showroom, Devon. If the name didn't already exist, it would be the art of sound. I'm very excited about how you put a new light on the love for historical technology like horns, triodes, SPU etc. Not as a "fashionable" direction but as a historically synergistic sound world in a new aesthetic rediscovery and way of life. In my view, the connection to Japan fits in very harmoniously with this. Because there it is lived, celebrated and enjoyed in this way. Hence the close relationship between high end and DIY there. And with your workshop courses you are also going in this direction and opening it up to people who might otherwise never have come to DIY, just like very high-quality Japanese cooking courses do.
@UCfv8aylv5CYPJM0pRupnJOw Hello:)
Amazing stuff! Beautifull design, incredible products, gorgeous turntable. Heaven. The set up has the most striking visual!
Really great news about production-grade SUTs. Would love to hear one - the SPU and the 103 are my two main carts.
Super cool video, Steve and Devon. I might have to plan a trip sometime soon! If I lived in nyc I’d sign up for a workshop. Nothing like it in Chicago, or anywhere else afaik. Nice job
loved this interview / tour . Time well spent very enjoyable
Hell to the YEAH!
This reminds me of the old Fi Audio store at 30 Watt St. in NY. So glad to see Devon's new store.
That's a culturally aspirational reference. Thank you 🙇♂
Enjoyed the tour of the shop. Totally cool to have such audio diversity.
Nice to see a Topping D90 DAC on the floor :p
Spotted that too!
I don't normally click the like button on videos before I watch them, but I do if they feature Devon. Such an amazing person and an inspiration
Would really love to own one of those turntables! Devon's approach is exceptionally cool across the board. A true enthusiast.
I modified my ~25 year old Sun Audio amp.. Particularly, the input and driver stages.. But these days it has a different front end tube altogether (for something different..) It’s a small kit amp that is a good platform for some mods..
Beautiful tour Steve, thank you so much. Do you happen to know how he is powering his Fostex? Will have to make a visit next time I'm in NYC
We make a subwoofer amp with integrated DSP
I'm curious to know what it sounds like, and how the sound compares to early SET equipment, and also compared to say Decware stuff.
Thanks Steve absolutely mind-boggling. What is the guy a billionaire jokes aside I bought an NAD 3050 works for me. Good show good interview. I guess class D is being in purgatory you’re almost there.And r3 Kef-compromise to some dynamic Klipchs
I’m impressed by all the press he’s getting for products that you can’t actually buy.
Occasionally he will “drop” some massively overpriced bookshelf speakers; but that’s it. And he doesn’t seem too keen on being a real manufacturer.
Have you reviewed any of his products yet? Any word on availability? I've enjoyed the coverage on these products but the websites referred here mostly say out of stock on all items.
Jason Singh was also there, he’s a sound artist and performing with Sarathy Korwar at the Southbank centre, London in March. I bet he could wax lyrical/offer his critique on the system. Me, not so much, lol.
Steve..Wow..
You.nailed it with this intriguing interview
Firstly I must say thank you for just letting him tell his story without any interruptions This young man in my opinion thinks way outside the box which I find fascinating and his passion for old school is very rare but a delight to watch because as I say to many young people the future can be found in our past...10/10 Steve from your Hifi buddy's in Australia 🙏
Dig the Japanese brochure on the shelf ... the mammoth legendary monitors; JBL 4450, Kinoshita/TAD, Westlake maybe, nice.
That is actually a series of books on the history of speaker design. Japanese language only. Incredible reference material (eye candy).
@@devonojas
Very nice! ... I concur, I too dig that aesthetic, the approach and platforms, etc.
We sell them on the site, in case you’re interested.
Kind of funny that he is following Altec and Western Electric. If you know your early 1930s history, RCA was making the best speakers at the time. The RCA 1428/1443 was likely the finest midrange ever made.
Thanks for this tour. I say your camera hovering on the shelf of cassette tapes. Too bad you didn't have time to talk about them. I had my JVC Digifine deck serviced during Covid, and have it in its box until I have time to make room for it. If you ever have time to do something on cassette tapes that would be cool.
Agreed I have 4 nakamichi and one still plays. Fortunately its a zx9
I have two JVC decks in my closet. They havn't been used for 20+ years. I used to create tapes for my poolside boombox & commuting in my car. Since 2005 everything is MP3. The decks may be worth millions$ one day!
Lovely guy and a very personal view of hifi, I love it. But I couldn't find anything about your book online, Steve. Would you please share a bit more about it?
The book was an extremely limited production from 13 years ago. But thanks for asking.
I tried searching for it as well. What was the book about? @@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac
Was it about hifi?@@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac
*** STEVE***. YOU NEED TO GO TO TOYKO !!! OMG! Visiting the Mother Ship. Bring Robin. You have NO IDEA!
Akihabara. That’s where yiu’re going - center of the electronics universe. No joke
@@XeroBritt You will like the second part of this video. It's mostly about the history of the Japanese audio scene that has obviously had an immense impact on my perspective on audio.
Sorry ojas, the groovemaster comes from the Netherlands and not from denmark 😉.
Thanks for the correction! Typical ignorant American mistake. 🫣
Amp workshops are a sensational idea. There's a guy in Sydney doing speaker building workshops where you buy the kit from him and build a 2way bookshelf pair over a weekend. Cost is c. $600US and the speakers reportedly sound really good. I'll put a link here.
Fantastic video Steve, I truly appreciate the passion and love that guys like this put in their products. Despite that I prefer more usable systems for many reasons like practicality, space, etc, I like the old HiFi tradition. I've been always fascinated by the life of guys like Saul Marantz and the way he started, or Dieter Burmester, the last, in my opinion, the builder of the most beautiful looking components not to mention the incredible sound and features they have. If you see how those pieces are made, it is just like jewellery. Well, anyway , thanks for another great video and all the best from West Spain.
Thanks for watching!
@@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac always a pleasure to learn from the experts. I´m expecting after years waiting my Buchardt audio system. The i150 integrated and the S400 Mark II speakers. My budget is not big but I think these components are some of the very best in the market and this is because the passion and love that Mads put in his products and the fact I´m getting this is because I've been listening to you, Steve Huff, John Darko, etc You guys are a big help for us audiophiles to get the goods no matter the budget. So Thanks a million Steve.
A small note, I have TAD 4002 drivers, and as far as I know TAD belongs to Pioneer, but are or were made in the USA.
Interesting! All of the TAD drivers I’ve seen proudly display a Made In Japan label, and that’s true of the currently manufactured product. I’ve never heard of TAD drivers made in the US, but if that was a thing I would LOVE to know who was making them.
Altec. The voice of the theatah!
Incredible stuff.
Densely packed episode with so many interesting things. Had to watch 3 times to take it all in. Loved it! Just wish OJAS stuff was available to people in Canada...
Wow, thanks so much!
I love Devon's attitude about running a music store! Would love to hear those speakers sometime. EDIT - Those 300b's aren't just standing their pins, are they?? Yikes!
Another reason for à Montréal to NYC road trip.
I love those tone arms that look like they should be on a Musk rocket to Mars.
Can they land a spaceship, I wonder. Because if they could that would make them
worth it, no? Have you seen that German TT that costs over a half million. Now
there is some real SPACE TECH. The Chinese are jealous!
On a more serious note. I'm glad to see that all those vacant overpriced NYC office and retail spaces are finally becoming more affordable for individuals like Devon. WE NEED MORE OF THAT you Real Estate Mongers, lol!
I lived in NYC in the '80s when Luxury High Rises, basically F-ed up the people, closed lots of Mom and Pop shops, and culturally famous music, art and theater venues and tripled the homeless population overnight while creating a dearth of affordable housing that has everybody living in Brooklyn today, including Mr. Guttenberg, no? Remember Rent Control? Nah! Market, Market, Market! Hurray for THE MARKET and let the people eat cake!
Play me some Edgar Winter off your shelf. Beginning with "Frankenstein", please.
I’d rather hear some Johnny, “Second Winter”, all three sides.. Yes, three only..
Please tell Steve Berger I said Hi. Thanks.
Audio Creative Groovemaster is dutch made not DK as mentioned.
My bad. Thanks for noting.
Thanks for the interview. He is no doubt a knowledgeable (Japanese) hifi expert. Does he design circuits himself though, does he have to? I;m debating this internally. He seems very much mostly curating technologies, other experts knowledge, applying obscure experiments from the asian audio community. In this sense he is like for example Virgil, more of a creative director, curator, experience designer, with a very developed sense of aesthetics, feel and audio sense than a product focussed business. Part of which is a very branded image. Not being able to buy these products makes his custom work very valuable. These experiences are hype-machines, some club owners, miljnairs or high end retail will walk in and commission some very lucrative projects for sure.
I love it! I'm wondering if OJAS sells factory direct a la Decware. I can definitely see OJAS filling the need for bespoke, low production numbers tube amps. There is definitely a market for this product, as evidenced by the long waiting lists for Decware amps.
Yes, Devon sells Direct.
Not sure what showrooms in Japan he’s talking about. I’ve had the opposite experience. Not exactly unwanted but like pulling teeth. Probably been to about 10. Like most things in Japan it helps to have a direct connection introduction which is sounds like he has many.
The Groovemaster is made in the Netherlands! Like: Amsterdam ain't the capitol of Copenhagen ... (!!!)
I love your passion to absorb audio history and innovation, then designing your dreams. Well done sir.
Thanks!
i like his style...
What was the model nr of the Sun Audio kit, in the shop? Karma baby
SV300 BE
thx boss@@SteveGuttenbergAudiophiliac
FYI..GM100 is the largest triode.
I will when I can figure out how to do that...
The 1200 era started in 1972
He is not that vintage age-wise but whatever
He is doing great things
This video was sooo overdue!!
Love Devons taste of music reproduction , its back to original intuitif concepts.....high efficient , lots of surface barely moving cones , so very low linear distortion , caused by excessif cone movement....thats the ' kwak'sound you can hear when you push a Rogers ls3/5a too far ...
Even the amazing bbc kef monitor P60 K300 , when pushed to realistic levels it barks ...it has to move too much the cone ....as an 8" to deliver 60 to 3000 hz....
My old polk model 10s have answers. Kef ls50 not so much unless 3 ft away. Even then flapping so called woofer best left in box.
Great tour but……..if you have to ask how much you can’t afford it😂
Cool looking but their prices are Ludacris for the level of quality /components they use
Speakers look similar to Augspurger Studio Stuff
This is the only MTM I’ve designed (so far…). There are many great studio monitors built in this configuration. My reference for this style of speaker is the Kinoshita monitors by Rey Audio, although that and any of the TAD or JBL based speakers are quite different than this Altec type driver configuration. In that sense, this speaker is closer to the Altec 9844, although again, quite different. Hope you enjoy those references.
@@devonojas I was really just referring to the horn design. Flat and narrow is a bit different than the typical Klipsch 60/90 horn. Augspurger guy says they went through several versions before going with the ones they use. They're all DSP stuff anyways. I like your stuff. Maybe OCD Mikey can check it out. He goes for the mom and pop stuff. The value to price ratio is typically much better.. No 100K stuff. 10 - 40K. Anyways - thanks for the response!
A common reference for those kinds horns is the Pioneer / TAD TH-4001 and a DIY horn by Yuichi Arai published in MJ
You should incorporate a coffee bar there too!
Why is everything on the floor? 40k monthly rent and cant afford a table?
No digital then 😢
We didn't cover it I guess, but there's a Studer D730 in the system right now. We listen to a lot of CDs.
Ojas is the word.